


Amusing one's self

by Ist_Narsha_Shehlisa



Category: Deadpool (Comics), Spider-Man (Comicverse), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Blood and Gore, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, Past Rape/Non-con, Sexual Tension, Vampire Bites, Vampires, Various Villains - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-05
Updated: 2016-09-07
Packaged: 2018-06-06 14:48:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 19,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6758494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ist_Narsha_Shehlisa/pseuds/Ist_Narsha_Shehlisa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Deadpool is back in New York! After being rejected by various heroes (and villains) he finds himself on the brink of shooting himself out of boredom. Then a familiar hero captures his interest while out on patrol and he can only think, "This can't be so bad after all."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work and I would appreciate feedback on the piece. Of course there's more chapters to come but any criticism would be helpful. It'll get intimate as it goes on. Much much more intimate.
> 
> ^Represents Id^  
> [Represents Superego]

“Hello, New York City!!”

[“A little louder, I don't think they heard you.”]

^“Wait, are they meant to hear us?”^

[“No, of course not.”]

Deadpool still couldn't resist the urge to stretch out his arms and yell like a maniac from the rooftops in the middle of the bustling city, not that anyone would hear over the noisy night. Yes, technically he shouldn't be here, and yes it would be a good idea to avoid detection from any hero patrolling the city, or...Deadpool looked down to see the Hulk letting a good 'ol D-lister have a nice serving of face-bashing before hurling him into a billboard.

[“Tearing up the city seems to be on the job description too.”]

^“Awww, why can't we have any of that?”^

[“Because everyone we try that on ends up in quite a serious health condition.”]

^“What's that?”^

[“Dead.”]

“Eh, well might as well say hello to the sweetcorn mascot.”  
Deadpool leapt from his perch to the next, to the next. Hulk was, surprisingly, making an effort to keep the fight confined to one rooftop. Not too difficult since all he needed to do was beat the living daylights out of el Tonto, exactly what he was doing right now.  
“Dude, red and this guy are like besties, go find a real bull,” Deadpool said, jeering at Matador. Hulk glanced at him momentarily before returning to his beatdown.  
“Not. now, Wade.”  
“Aw come on, Hulk buddy, is that how you greet a friend?” Deadpool made a face.  
“Not friends, Hulk is busy taking bad guy down.” By now Matador was well and truly down for the count, down, but alive, probably going to feel the truck hit him in the morning. Times like these Deadpool wondered how a big green giant had more restraint than he could, how easy it was to smash people into paste, literally, with strength like his. Then again, restraint? HA!  
“Hang out after, maybe? As long as you don't string me up in my own guts like last time?”  
“No...”  
“Don't be like that-”  
“No.”  
“I can get the corn-”  
“Hulk said NO!” the big guy growled at him, a bit of spittle hitting the merc in the face before he made giant leaps from building to building, with the unconscious villain. Deadpool sighed, story of his life.

*******************************************************

“Yo, Thaaang, how's the family? Sue and Rich had a baby yet cuz goddamn if you guys had a baby without telling me, I could've given it the most awesome name, EVER!” Ben sighed, as Johnny came out of the shower in a towel, reaching into the refrigerator for a beer. Never decent enough to wear clothes instead of a towel, Ben had long since, given up complaining about him.  
“Who's on the phone,” Johnny called across the kitchen as he took a swig.  
“Oooh, is that torchie I hear? Hey, can I hang out with guys, I'll bring the pop-” Ben hung up on the merc.  
“Just some nobody,” Ben replied.

********************************************************

“Please leave a message and after the tone.”  
“He-hey, it's me Deadpool, remember, guy with the hot wife you tried to kill because, you know, Queen of the Underworld,” Blue flame on steel filling the entire warehouse will a pleasant smell of burning metal. Whistler probably working on the car again. No complaints. The voicemail continues, “Hey, listen no hard feelings, Shiklah's all over it too, so why don't we hang out sometime, do whatever it is you do, what was it, Vampire Hunting, that's all cool and all.” The sound of welding metal stops for a moment as Whistler removes the protective mask.  
“You gonna get that kid?”  
“Nope.”  
“Oh yeah, remember that one kid...or three, they're like some powerful vampire gods or something, like right out of an anime or an rpg I played once in middle-school. Nice set of bodies on them? Wouldn't mind havin' a piece if I wasn't all taken up with killing and boobies, and you know me, I'm all about the boobies! Anyway, I know you're all like vampires are evil and shit, respect man, but the kid's sweet, quiet but he's down to earth kind of guy, at least try not to kill him like you did LAST time. So...call me, funsies?”  
The gun fires, leaving four holes in a photo of Deadpool he'd personally taken and sent. Whistler paused his work for a moment. Normally he'd be telling blade not to waste his bullets on punks and things he didn't appreciate, but he had to give it to him, the merc was a massive pain in the $%^#. 

********************************************************

Meanwhile in hell. All was well. Tortured screams echoed through the endless realm as souls were continually dragged through the fires of damnation. Demons drunk on the blood of the sinners, feasted on the bones of the guilty as they awaited the day they would be unleashed upon the upper worlds. And above them all, sat the great lord of hell, a fallen angel who rebelled alongside his king and leader Lucifer of the proud. Upon his circle sat Mephisto, surveying the realm above and before him, patiently pulling the strings of the weak and preying upon the hearts of the 'would be' righteous. On his throne, he watched, observing his throne, planning, scheming, all was as it should be….until the phone rang.

Mephisto picked up the horned device, “Hello?”  
“Yo, Mephisto my man! How's it going? You know the torture and all. Good? Great! You know I was thinking, since we're pals and all I wouldn't mind giving you a hand with whatever dastardly plan you're making (and getting paid for it) like, after all, there's absolutely nothing cool to do up here (and I mean there is nothing to do up here, who in the right evil mind has a maximum number for hiring henchmen?!)” The voice on the line takes a deep breath, “Anyway point is, I would love to help out. So what d'ya say pal, we in business?”  
“I changed the number last month, how did you get this?”

***********************************************************************************

Logan pulled a beer out from the freezer below the drinks cabinet. For a clean guy, the professor sure did keep a lot of beer around, but then again, he probably knew Logan would be back in the mansion along with all the other mutants. After all the debate, Wolverine ended up back here, not that it was a bad thing, beer's a bonus. The company was a different matter, but after a bit of thought, Logan felt he could somehow get used to it. At least he didn't have to deal with a certain mutate who found out where his apartment was...which was the whole reason why he moved back in to the X-men Academy. At least until he can find another more obscure location to live in, he could at least not have to deal with the menace. For now it was quiet with most of the other X-men either on a mission or the kids on a field trip.  
“Logan!” spoke too soon. Domino was calling to him on the system, from the hangar. Beer bottle in hand, he made his way to the Hangar half hoping it was trouble that he could slice in two to liven up the day. Upon his arrival, he found the place feeling rather emptier, where was the Blackbird? Domino stood to one side of the huge room arms crossed and her face crosser, a piece of paper in hand.  
“You, have a letter, written in crayon.”  
Ah, shit, the thought that instantly zipped into his mind. He took the sheet of paper.  
“Hey, Wolverine. Was feeling a tad bit sad when I heard you moved away again. So I've taken the Blackbird out for a spin, consider yourself forgiven. xoxo Deadpool, p.s. you stink, luv ya bro!”  
Domino was kneading the bridge between her eyes. The beer bottle cracked in Logan's beastly grip. Beer is a bonus.  
“WAAAAAAADE!” 

**********************************************************************

[“Yeah, story of your life alright.”]

Well, time to find someone else to hang out with, he thought. He dropped down to the alley below, giving a grunt. Epic landing fail equals pain, not that anybody noticed except maybe a stray cat. But whatever muscles semi-exploded with the impact healed by the time he got to the end of the alleyway. Down on the streets, busy citizens were too busy going about their daily lives to notice the red leather mercenary or anything else. Engrossed with their cellphones and shiny lives, protected by superheroes and secret organisations making sure nothing interrupts the lives of these boring fish-brains. All these people content to swim around the giant aquarium that is New York city. Eh, people are the same everywhere. Hardly anyone ever looks up, the one reason why heroes and S.H.I.E.L.D. get to fly round over the city without much notice. Speaking of which Deadpool realized he was on a mission of his own. Who to bug, who to bug? Just then the familiar thwip almost drowned out by noise and honking cars caught his attention and he craned his neck just in time to see Spider-man swinging away. BUG!  
“Well color me dandy, it's Spidey! Yoohoo, oh Spider-man!” Deadpool called. Heads turned wondering what this idiot was doing in the middle of the path acting like a loony. With absolutely no regard, Deadpool gave chase, still calling out to the web-slinger.

[“Don't think he heard you.”]

^”Oh man, he's way too fast!”^

[“Maybe we should scream, usually that gets his attention.”]

Just as he was on the verge of losing sight of Spidey, he turned a corner to see him facing off against Rhino, out on a rampage. It seemed as if the big guy had been here a while evident from the amount of wreckage he'd made, cars and trucks upturned and enough broken roads and everything to cost New York a few months of repairs, no wonder Spider-man was in such a hurry. Well, Deadpool found the mess, the cause was nowhere to be seen.

“Huh.” Must've moved to some other place that's not already trashed, Deadpool thought as his eyes scanned the destruction. This is why the teleporter came in so handy sometimes, which unfortunately is still on cool-down mode since the last time he abused it to go to Hawaii, then Moscow and back, for babes, beaches and alcohol.

“Of all the times!” Deadpool yelled in frustration, punching his fist into the sky.

[“And this is why we should never abuse things for pointless reasons.”]

^“Oh come on! It was an EMERGENCY!”^

[“Running out of cheap Vodka doesn't equal end of the world, the nearest vendor was up the hill next to the stop sign.”]

 

“Eh, too much trouble and ten minutes away from all those babes? Nuh-uh.” Deadpool thought aloud, “Then again, I'm about to miss my good friend Spidey because of it, GOD DAMN YOU KARMA!”

There was a sudden flash of red, and as Deadpool squinted he could see an agile figure swinging among the buildings in the distance. Then the sound of crashing metal and glass followed along with screaming. Screaming is always a good sign.

[ “Something is telling us that's Spidey's next destination.”]

^ “Thank our lucky stars!”^

“Spider-man! Oh Spider-man, over here! Hey, wait up!” Deadpool stumbled on after the web-slinger.


	2. Chapter 2

There was fire everywhere and growing. Each time the fire-fighters came and put out one blaze a new one would start up. There was no way they could keep up. It this chaos continued, this would be one of the biggest conflagrations in New York City.  
The fire-fight continued onto another apartment block, a great brick-laid structure that was crumbling on one side and burning from the inside out. The damage must have reached the gas line and caused an explosion, they had moments to put out the blaze before another blows this whole structure sky-high. They tried as they always do, but there was no way they could put out the inferno in time.

“We need to get everyone out of the building, NOW!” the chief said who began directing his men to clear out every civilian trapped inside. And as the stream of residents gradually slowed to a stop, the chief halted the last one, a young woman.

“Miss, can you tell me if everyone is clear?” She was still clearly shaken, failing to answer coherently. “Are these all of the residents? We need to know before this place blows again.” She managed to suppress her panic and glanced around at the survivors trying to catch their breath. Then she grabbed the chief by the arm.

“No wait! My neighbor is in there, she locked herself in her room! She's in a wheelchair!”  
Then another eruption of fire blew out a window on the far side of the building. Dammit, the fire's already out of control, I can't send my men in there, he thought, only one other option.

“Alright boys, we'll need everything we got, and put out this damned fire!” As they struggled uselessly to put out the blaze something, a figure in red, crashed right into one of the windows.

“Holy- was that…?”

As the third explosion shook the foundations, the figure erupted again from another window carrying a middle-aged lady in his arms and landed squarely on his feet on the pavement below.

“And then he said Indian? I live on that stuff! And she told him, yeah I know, I live with your explosions everyday. Geddit?” Clearly the lady was too terrified to hear or understand anything he was saying, as she screamed and sobbed but her savior took no notice.

“So what's you name?”

“S-Sally Mason...”

“Okay Sally, remember, keep your wheelchair well oiled, never lock yourself in a bathroom with a broken keyhole and take your crazy pill regularly, like every twenty minutes.”

The woman just nodded as her hero handed her over to the paramedics who were on standby.  
“Thanks Spidey, we can always count on you to save another citizen, like your costume by the way,” the fire-fighter commented.

“Thanks, chief, oh by the way, name's not Spidey, it's Deadpool, see ya laters!”

____________________ _____________________________

Spider-man narrowly avoided the rear end of the taxi that was hurled at him, but with the amount of debris and steel being thrown, he's narrowly avoided pretty much everything thanks to his Spider sense and trusty instincts. He did a back flip onto another car as Rhino prepared to throw another car.

“Come on Rhino, I don't know what these cars did to you and I'm sure it horrible, like, blocking your path or holding you up in traffic but don't you think this is going overboard. I mean you've thrown nearly half the city's worth of cars by now,” Spider-man shifted to the left as another one flew past him, “Plus one.”  
“SHADDUP! SHADDUPSHADDUPSHADDUP!” Rhino roared as he ducked his head and charged straight at the webbed hero. As his horned nug collided with the car, Spider-man flipped forwards over the villain and shot a series of quick web bullets, adhering his his face to the car.

“There, now you may kiss the car, pfft.”

Rhino let out a bunch of muffled grunts and clawed with his stubby at the extra strong webbing that Peter had developed from Otto's formula. Finally out of frustration, her pulled and pulled until his head came away from the vehicle, spinning around with a great red weal on his face.

“Ahaha, oh god, that look suits you,” Spidey mocked.

“Grrr, I'm gonna crush you damn prick!” Rhino lunged again just as Spider-man let out a line of web and pulled himself high into the air, delivering a massive heel drop kick to the giant's occipital and sending right into an oncoming van.

Spidey landed nimbly onto a street lamp.  
“Cheating on your wife already? I heard you liked 'em big but you haven't even gone past the honeymoon yet.”  
Rhino didn't seem to have heard as he passed out from the concussion.  
“Huh, I should do that more often, if Rhino had some more brain cells to lose.” Spider-man dangled from the lamp-post too busy wondering if he should drag the lug over to the police or just wait until they got there to hear someone closing in and muttering to himself.

“Ow, glad I got away before anyone saw my legs this screwed up.”

[“Let's not jump from the fifth floor of a building next time”]

^”You gotta admit it was totally awesome!”^ 

“Spidey, oh Spider-man!”

“Uh-oh that sounds like...” Spider-man looked behind him down on the street to see a very mouthy red-clad mercenary prancing down the street, “Deadpool?!”

“The one and only Merc with a Mouth, who will shoot your enemies at the right priii-” Deadpool trailed off, Spidey had hopped onto the street below and standing straight but not too tall, his arms were crossed with a not so pleased expression. 

^”One of the many wonders of comics!”^

[“Expressive masks.”]

“Ehem, at you disservice it seems.”

“What, are you doing here, Deadpool?” The merc could practically hear the irritation rolling from the wall-crawler's lips. Wow.

[“We can add that to our list of turn-ons”]

“I was uh, passing through, you know making sure the city hasn't blown to pieces yet (or seeing if it needs to be).”

“DEADPOOL!”

“Alright, alright, no but seriously I was just on my way back from Philadelphia, you know, job hunting and stuff, or was it the other way round?” Deadpool pondered this with a finger tapping his lower lip, still Spider-man's attitude didn't change as he regarded him with suspicion.

“Wait, are you targeting someone in MY city?” Spider-man nearly spat, lurching forward with a fist at the ready, and Deadpool knew how deadly those fists were. Legs too but they were on a whole different level of deadly.

“No, no, I'm not, pinky-swear...(at least no yet),” 

Deadpool almost chastised himself for constantly mumbling his darker thoughts. Sure usually, if it was anyone else he'd be outright saying them but seeing how he'd pissed of Spidey so much over the whole killing thing, he had to bring it down. Not that he could keep it down for very long and Spidey had very good ears.  
Spider-man cleared his throat.

“Okay no I'm not gonna kill anyone, I mean it, please don't be mad, Spidey, I wuv youoououo,” Deadpool did the eyes and pouty lips again. 

God, Peter wasn't even sure how Wade could do it with his mask on, but his puppy dog eyes were killer, pun intended, as they were at same time disturbing.

“Whatever, stop that, you're creeping me out,” Spider-man said as he turned away, “As if you weren't creepy enough.”

Through the flames and the bickering, both men could hear the tinkering sound of shifting glass followed by a low groan and Spider-man realized, thanks to Deadpool, he'd completely forgotten about the villain he'd been trying to subdue earlier. And as Rhino got up, shaking the disorientation from his head, they both went into battle mode.

“Heads up! Horny's ready to roll.”

“I can SEE that.”

“YOU!” Rhino spat, pointing one trembling finger at the web-head as if he was channelling all his rage into it and shoot him dead.

“Yes, me, it's always been me,” Spider-man said, finding his humor returning.

“I'm gonna make you pay for making fun of me, MAKE YOU PAY!” Rhino roared as he lowered his great head for another charge. 

The fight erupted again as he lunged and punched, throwing random debris at the two. Spider-man easily dodged his attacks, hopping around until he was close enough to land a few powerful flurry of kicks to Rhino's gut and face, winding and stunning the man.

“Overcompensating for something eh, Horny?” Deadpool mocked before a dented car smashed him into the wall at lightning speed, making a Deadpool sized splatter on the bricks. “Brains, I meant brains,” he said with a broken voice. A few more vehicles piled on, “Ow.” 

Rhino stomped over in his direction when he felt something sticking to his back, which yanked him backwards before he could react.

“Your beef is with me! Oh man, so many cow jokes if only your name wasn't Rhino, what do you think, Ox?”

“Graaah!” Rhino swung wildly at the web-head who simply jumped out of the way.

“Nah, that's taken.”

Rhino swiped and punched without restraint, hitting more innocent vehicles and tearing up the gravel and concrete even more.

“Whoa there, anger management in serious demand here,” Spider-man joked as he back-flipped and sidestepped and ducked his way around Rhino.

“Heads up, Spidey!” Deadpool yelled, followed by a searing pain in Peter's head that can only be his Spider-senses going haywire. Deadpool let loose with his handguns, peppering the big man with bullets just as Spider-man's instincts moved him out of the line of fire.

“Whoa, Deadpool, no guns, NO KILLING!” Spidey shouted, webbing the guns closed.

“Aw man, not ma babies, oh wait, they're someone else's.” Spider-man leaped right next to the mercenary and grabbed him roughly by the collar, visibly pissed off.

“We. Talked. About this. Deadpool.”

“Relax, honey, I'm sure he's fine,” Deadpool said, pointing at Rhino who was shaking off the bullets like they were flies smashed against metal, it seemed to annoy him rather than hurt him, “See? No holes, wait, oh *$#@&.”

[“Oh look, censoring.”]

^“When did that writer dude put that in?”^

[“We can fix that.”]

“We are fucked, probably.”

“His armor is impenetrable to most firearms.”

“Yeah, just found out because someone wikied it.”

“What?”

“Ooh, got an idea, wait up and don't beat him up before I get back.”

“What the-? Deadpool.” Spider-man yelled after his ally as he rushed off from the scene. But before Peter could get his bearings a huge roar of anger startled him and he turned back to see Rhino coming in for a big strike. The horns looking sharp enough to gore three men at once.  
“Whoa!” Spidey cried out in surprise as his instincts made him leap high into the air, “Watch it, you could seriously run someone through with those. You know what, your name should be Bull. Yeah that suits you, all horns no brains, so time for a new outfit?”

“SHADDUP, you damn bug!”

“Arachnid, geez why does everyone get that wrong?”

“Don't care, I'm still gonna squash you like one.” He hurled a tire at the web-head and tried to throw in a few lumbering punches. 

Spider-man easily evaded the blows but he could see Rhino was almost over the edge. If this dragged on any longer his wrath could threaten innocent lives. It was time to end this pointless brawl quickly before anyone else other than Rhino's dignity got hurt. Spider-man threw in his own punches, throwing Rhino off balance, but somehow managed to regain it and double fist Spidey into the road.  
“Oof!” he uttered, winded from the blow. Christ, I forget how strong he is when his strikes hit. He managed to recover and roll sideways before Rhino could land a second, instead he hit the concrete leaving a massive crater in it. But he wasn't done yet, Rhino tried to backhand the Spider who only narrowly dodged back from the blow. Unfortunately, Rhino learned a new trick and sent his other arm forward, smashing Spider-man backwards into a street-lamp. He hit the metal pole like bullet, denting the metal, and slid to the ground, feeling the beginnings of a bruise on his back and torso. Ow, there goes a rib, and here I though Rhino was a stupid as he was big, damn it, Peter thought. His vision blurred for a bit as he raised his head and suddenly he could make out an object hurling towards him, a big object, before his Spider-senses kicked in. He threw himself aside as the remains of a wrecked silver BMW slammed into the street-lamp, completely severing from the ground.

“*huff* need just one minute to catch...my breath,” Spider-man gasped, “Forget it Spidey, no time.” He got back onto his feet and rushed in for a series of punches. They got Rhino in the chin but his rage seemed to override any pain and reacted with his own strikes. Luckily, Spider-man was fast and he jumped back, then dashed in circles as he webbed Rhino's feet together, but they were no match for his enhanced strength as he tore through them easily.  
He ducked his head again as he tried to toss the Spider into the air on his horns. Spider-man jumped backwards onto a car, shooting a stream of sticky webbing at Rhino's horn and pulled, sending the big man face down into the ground.  
“Ha, eat my dirt!” Spider-man leaped over him as Rhino struggled to loosen his horns from the road. Just as he freed his head, Spider-man jumped on him, wrapping one arm around the big guys neck and trying to elbow a vital spot with his elbow.  
“Get. Off. Me!” Rhino yelled as his cumbersome arms tried to reach behind him and grab Spider-man. For a few seconds, Spidey avoided his hands and punched hard into the back of Rhino's head, neck and shoulders, he could feel the blows affecting him.

“Just. A little more,” he choked out before a large hand caught him by his arm, “Uh oh, gaaahh!”

HE cried out as he felt himself being pulled painfully over the man's shoulder and thrown down onto the concrete road like a rag-doll. Winding him. His whole body trembling from the impact he was yanked up, Rhino's huge fist gripped his forearm almost completely as he loomed menacingly over Spider-man.  
Great, Spidey, now he is going to really crush you, he thought.

“Got ya now, Spidey. I'm gonna show you what happens. When. You. Mess. With. The Rhino.”

“Is this how you treat all your dates?” Spider-man couldn't help throwing that last quip in as Rhino raised his fist high into the air, preparing to pummel the spider into the ground.

“Hey, Rhiiiiino!” A scarred voice distracted both men. They simultaneously turned to look behind Rhino.

“Remember what I said about overcompensating? Yeah, I did mean it and it usually applies. To everyone but me,” suddenly Deadpool rounded a corner with a humongous Bazooka sitting snugly on his shoulders, no make that two Bazookas, “Cuz ALL MY GUNS ARE BIG!” 

Oh.My. God was Peter's last thought before a series of rockets sped towards him and Rhino. Luckily, Rhino's huge back took the brunt of it as they all exploded on his armor. But even the resulting shock wave was strong enough to make Spider-man's whole body shake and go numb.  
“Aaargh!” he cried as the pain hit him. Rhino however had let go, in pain and madder than ever he turned to the mercenary, eyes blazing. Quickly Spider-man forced himself to recover and rolled to a crouch, aiming his web-shooters at the villain. It hit, webbing him in the face and obstructing his vision. Only milliseconds passed when he finally ripped the webbing from his eyes but the wall-crawler was already in the air, jumping over him, doing an acrobatic flip and delivering a devastating kick to the side of of Rhino's neck. Knocking him out completely. He fell heavily to the ground, making a mini tremor. Finally the fight was over.  
Spider-man angrily stomped over to Deadpool.

“Are you crazy, that blast could've taken me out as well!”

“Totally, but it didn't. Relax Webs, I knew what I was doing.”

[“Liar.”]

“Have faith in my guns, speaking of which, would you like to see my other one, I keep it hidden for special occasions.”

Spidey shuddered, dreading the thought of whatever Deadpool was talking about, “No thanks.”

Just then the sounds of sirens in the distance growing louder with each second caught both men's attention.  
“Uh oh, I cannot, be seen here, the cops are going to blame me for the destruction and my reputation is at an all time low as it is,” Spider-man was already heading off to leave the scene, quickly flicking his wrist.

“Wait! I got a better idea,” Deadpool said suddenly wrapping his arms around the other man as he was about to swing away.

“Wha-” Spidey uttered before the disappeared in a puff of smoke, BAMF!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, please, leave a comment, like and subscribe, oh wait, wrong website. Enjoy!


	3. Voice's in my head (your's too!)

The same evening elsewhere in the city, everything was normal. People going about life as they always do, working the night-shift, or working shifty jobs in general but the buzz of night-life was thick in the air. If Las Vegas didn't sleep, New York couldn't be too far behind. Of course, after the mess on the other side of town is cleaned up they'll hear about it in the morning most likely from J.J. Jameson squawking about Spider-man being the cause and that the 'menace' needs to be brought down. But while things are gearing up for the inevitable, a small muffled sound, like puff of air being sucked into a vacuum echoed briefly high in one of the alleyways as two men found themselves falling down below.  
“AAAAAAHH!” Spider-man and Deadpool both screamed before they hit a dumpster, denting it and fell to the ground. Luckily for Spider-man, he'd avoided the brunt of the impact, the same couldn't be said for the other man. Peter groaned as he lifted his head. They must've fallen from quite a distance from the damage they'd done on the way down, anyone going by the fire escape couldn't possibly ignore the bent metal railings. But on a more urgent note, Spidey had no idea where they were and how he'd ended up awkwardly in this man's arms. Deadpool began to stir as well, with a gritty whimper, “Ow.”

“Deadpool, you okay?”

“A few broken ribs and dislocated shoulder, no biggy.”

“Let me up,” Spider-man said impatiently realizing that the mercenary had trapped him in his arms and in a surprisingly tight embrace. For an injured person, he was a lot stronger than expected. Spider-man tried to untangle Deadpool's arms from around his waist.

“Just a minute, while I stitch my bones back together.” 

Secretly, Deadpool was relishing the feel of Spider-man's body smushed up against him.

^“Holy crap!”^

[“Spider-man is a lot comfier than the writers give him credit for”]

^“No wonder he has so many girlfriends.”^

[“And gets grabbed by tentacles all the time.”]

^“Oh yeah, the whole Cthulu thing, man that ended way too soon.”^

“I wonder if his ass...” Wade wondered aloud.

“What are you mumbling about?”

“Nothing, sweetheart.”

After lying in the alley for what felt like an hour, but was only ten minutes, Peter got impatient and creeped out. He pushed against the mercenary, trying to free himself from his grasp. He felt his arm dig in with a sickening crunch. Yikes, all of his ribs are broken! Deadpool heaved himself up while Spider-man stumbled backwards, dizzy from the effects of teleportation. He put a hand on Spidey's shoulder.

“Whoa, you holding up okay there, Spidey?”

“Just...fine, hate teleporting,” he gasped, “How the hell does Nightcrawler do it?”

“What can I say, he's a natural, ahaha, ack, get it? Natural, born with it...” Spidey gave him a strange look, definitely not pleased or amused at the moment, “Right, right, I get it not feeling good, buzz-kill.”

Peter would have shot back at him with some witty remark except he knew from experience that the moment they start no one, and no way, could they ever stop, unless someone decided to shoot them. Preferably Deadpool. He made a quick glance at their surroundings. However alleyways weren't good for identifying locations.

“Where is this?”

“I don't know, can't remember what I was thinking before I BAMFed us away.” 

“Are you serious?”

“Wait, I think I was thinking taco's.”

“Tell me you did not just BAMF us to Mexico.”

“I dunno I-”

“DEADPOOL!”

“Okay, okay, no I didn't take us that far, otherwise my baby would be fried beyond repair, speaking of which, I hope my teleporter's okay, do you know how hard it is to find gizmos like this?”

Spider-man sighed, kneading the bridge between his eyes. This guy was absolutely no help, to the nerves or the situation. At least he didn't have curfew any more since moving away from Aunt May but no doubt she could call any second and with her condition weakened after the previous life-threatening event, there was no room for any more stress in her body. At least MJ moved in with her after her parents split so she could take care of his aunt.

“You know what I gotta go, I don't have all night,” he said turning away.

“What, you're going?”

“Rhino is down, my job is done and most of us have lives outside of hero work.”

[”Ooooh”]

^“Right in the feels”^

“Well then, enjoy your sleepy time, then,” Deadpool huffed, responding in kind. He had begun to leave as well when Spider-man called him again.

“Deadpool.” He paused not turning around to look.

“Yeah? What?”

“Thanks...for helping me out there.”

Deadpool turned slowly, and saw Spidey was looking straight at him, hand on his hip, jutting coolly to the side, his head cocked a little to the side. Every part of his body totally relaxed. Even with his face was covered mask, if Wade had to guess, the guy Spider-man must be smiling beneath. And for the first time, he saw a little of the laid-back and playful side of Spidey.

^“Did he just-”^

“Thank us? Yup.”

^“Oh. Em. GEE!”^

[“And that pose, that body”]

^“I know! Squeeeeee!”^

 

And suddenly, he had the urge to take it off just to make sure, and see what the man underneath looked like. But, Bro Code, never break the Bro Code.

“Sure, any time Spidey.”

“Will I see you around?” Spider-man asked with genuine interest, not the 'Oh god please don't come near me again, get out of town' way.

“Yeah, I'll be here for a bit, until the sugar hits the sack.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Cool, well, just don't...kill anyone around here, remember, no one-”

“Gets killed while you're here, I know, relax, I'm not that homicidal.”

[“Actually, you are”]

“Shut it,” Deadpool muttered angrily at white.

“Excuse me?” Spider-man clearly heard that as he narrowed an eye at Wade.

“Uh, nothing, ahem, cross my heart this Pool shall not kill.”

“Good, see you around,” Spider-man said as he shot a web up and prepared to swing away, his body tensing. Suddenly Deadpool was on him, his big arms wrapped around Spider-man's shoulders and preventing him from moving.

“Wait, don't I get a goodnight kiss? I can't sleep without one,” he teased playfully, nuzzling into the side of the smaller man's face. Making a playful pout through his mask.

“Don't you get girls for that?”

“It's not the same as a superhero one, come on, just one little peck,” Deadpool nudged in a little closer. Peter narrowed his eyes, getting irritated again. Personal space, dammit, he thought, pushing at Deadpool's face before he got to close to where he didn't want him to.

“Get off, geez,” he said, finally freeing himself and pulling himself up into the air.

“I will get the smooch I deserve, just you wait and see!” Deadpool yelled, shaking a fist in Spider-man's direction as he swung off into the night, “Hehe, one day.”

The night was finally silent without Deadpool yapping at him. But with all his non-stop chitchat earlier, his voice was still ringing in Peter's ears, that must be some power, to talk your friends and enemies out of their minds. What was Deadpool doing in his city anyway, he thought. He never gave straight answers, heck, if he ever did hell must've frozen over. But the mercenary must at least have a reason for here at all, of all the places to pass through, New York and the only thing that made sense was for business. And this city had a lot of opportunities who 'would pay to kill' and Deadpool is a man who would 'kill for money'. It only made sense. But at the same time, he promised Spider-man, not in this city. As he swung through the city, Peter's thoughts went silent, maybe he was over-thinking things. Sure he could be on 'business', which made Peter shudder, but he really could be just 'passing through'. Or maybe, the Kingpin hired the mercenary to get rid of someone, maybe get rid of Spider-man even...He sighed. He just hoped he wouldn't have to sleep with Deadpool's voice still in his ears. 

It took a bit of time but as the final tendrils of adrenaline seeped away, Peter felt the fatigue hit him like a baseball bat. If it wasn't for sheer willpower he might have collapsed readily on his apartment floor. Can't risk anybody looking in and finding Spider-man sleeping like a baby in his apartment. He managed to slide himself out of his suit, shower briefly and fall into bed.  
His tired eyes flickered shut, “Another early day at college tomorrow Pete, another day as Spider-man.” His last thoughts as he drifted off were wondering if Deadpool will still be around.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get weird not too long after Wade gets to the Big Apple, and probably just in time...

The sound of New Yorkers beginning their routine car-honking, coffee and traffic induced rage brought Peter around as his sleep meter cranked up to full. His eyes blinked open, squinting at the lazy morning light. For a city filled with towering buildings, a lot light got into the deepest of places, via many reflective surfaces. Peter could almost predict the new look of Future New York, all glass panelling and windows always gleaming with bricks walls completely out of fashion, if not in his lifetime then definitely in future. He slowly sat up, perched on one arm. The other hand was rubbing the sleepiness out of his eyes. The temptation to just collapse back onto his pillow was almost irresistible, but college calls and classes, Peter looks at his clock, starts in forty-five minutes. With a bit of extra effort, he manages to put one foot on the floor, then the other, finally he's on his feet and getting ready. His meagre breakfast of toast lasted about five minutes, not even packing lunch. It was slightly miserable living on such little, but no point in complaining about it Parker, he always said to himself, consider it compensation for years on living on piles and piles of Aunt May's wheatcakes.  
His mind wandered absently as he boarded the subway, wondering how his friends start their day, did MJ and Harry always begin each morning in perfection, fantasizing how Flash in reality looked even worse than Peter on a bad day with that stupid blond hair. What about his enemies? Maybe those metal arms of Doc Ock's give him a rude awakening everyday, Rhino and Juggernaut will most likely be snoring away, they look the part, and Doctor Doom...Peter snickered. His imagination really does go wild. And what of Deadpool? Peter gazed out the window thoughtfully. If he had to guess probably tacos in the morning or something else Mexican, but did he go out in costume or casual clothes. Probably in costume but that might just attract more attention, not that the man has any problem with attention, probably loves it too.

The train finally reached his destination. Just ten minutes to spare, luckily it was right up at the college so he was slightly early. The morning passed, filled with lectures on immunology and molecular pathology. His only practical classes were some labs in biochemistry. At times during classes and in between, people eyed him with interest. A lot of women in fact, turned briefly, eyes on Peter when he walked along the corridors. Though he wore casual, non-formfitting jeans and shirt, he still attracted attention. Some men too, which was just creepy. Still it was brief, to Peter's relief and no one had asked him out yet. But he did feel the odd pang of loneliness when he saw a couple together and his mind would wander to the times when he used to be together with MJ. Last class, he began to daydream. To Peter it felt like they were soul-mates, meant for each other. She accepted him for what he was, even proud of him and in turn he was utterly devoted to her, nothing filled him more than his love for the beautiful red-headed sweetheart he'd known since they were children. It seemed like the perfect love there could be. But their relationship, strong as it was, was volatile. Because he was Spider-man, but also because he had an even darker secret, one that he told no one except his Aunt May and Uncle Ben. And secrets, destroy relationships. One way, or another. So she left him. It broke him, but he knew it wasn't her fault. He tried to stay strong, not give up on finding someone and dated various other girls but the feeling couldn't be replicated and in the end, he kept to himself and avoided any possibility of having a girlfriend. Too bad he can't do squat about his face but at least he must've seemed to geeky for anyone to try asking him out. He can't even smile right for a girl, talking to one must've sounded like the most awkward conversation in American history.  
The lecturer finally ended his class. With the early afternoon, he could at least go for a bite and coffee, always at the local coffee diner, a few blocks from the university. This one was his established favorite, and nowhere else could compare, at least not any he'd bothered to try. If he wasn't dead broke he'd be willing to go visit other ones but for now, Gatsby's was affordable, Deco and they had good coffee.  
Just as soon as he got to the café, a man in a red hoodie and cap practically crashed through the door, his shoulder collided with Peter's.  
“Watch it,” he grumbled from beneath his cap.  
“Sorry man,” Peter said, then quickly turned his head embarrassed, if it wasn't for habit, he'd have said nothing instead of apologising like a dork. He glanced back briefly just as the man brought his head down and walked off, catching a glimpse of a scarred mouth. He stood there at the entrance, shocked, watching as the man disappeared round a corner.  
“Those looked like some really bad burns.”

“Here you go sweetheart, your favorite,” a round-faced lady said with a smile as she placed a cinnamon hazelnut latte in front of him. He gave her warm thank you.  
“If you need anything else, just give us a shout 'kay honey?”  
“Yes, thanks again,” he said, smiling meekly. She left him to enjoy his quiet moment by the window. After coming her for the fifth time when he started college, the staff had already begun to recognize him and by the eighth, he was one of their regulars. It was flattering as well strange since Peter was never iconic in highschool and back then, it would take beating him up for anyone to remember the number one anti-social nerd. Charm was never exactly one of his strong suits and from past experiences Peter was sure his face was as memorable as wall paint. Still, he sipped his coffee and gazed out the window, it was nice and a discount from the owners is always a bonus. The news went on as he sat there, enjoying the afternoon. Peter tuned in, listening as they reported the arrest of Aleksei Sytsevich a.k.a. the Rhino, sweet. Then the report on to describe the damage done in yesterday's rampage...with Jameson giving the wall-crawler the routine treatment.  
“Again, this wall-crawler trashes the city and disturbs civilians running around in his underwear. No doubt, he and this Rhino were in this together and devised this wreckage spree to give himself publicity. They both deserve to rot in jail. Spider-man must be brought down, he is a menace, A MENACE!”  
“J.J.J never fails to deliver,” Peter chuckled to himself.  
“In other news, a man in red was seen rescuing a civilian from a burning apartment building left by the Rhino's rampage. At first, he was identified by local fire-fighters as Spider-man who had just been seen chasing down the Rhino in another part of town. When asked, the chief had this to say,” the news-woman was replaced with a shot of reporters interviewing the chief of the Fire Dept., “I went up to thank him and brushed it off like it was nothin', honestly, heroic, damn heroic.”  
“Was it Spider-man in a new costume?”  
“Spider-man? Naah, this guy had swords and guns.”  
“Did he give his name?”  
“Yeah, said the name was, Deadpool.”  
Peter choked and spluttered on his sip of coffee. A young waitress came over.  
“You okay?”  
“Yeah, yeah, just, uh, burned my tongue. How careless,” he said with an embarrassed smile.  
“Oh, we could make your coffee less hot next time if it's too much.”  
“No! No it's fine, it was my bad, I like the coffee the way it is, thanks.”  
“Okay, mind yourself.”  
“Sure,” Peter said, glancing back at the screen, a still image of a familiar figure in red with the iconic mask confirmed it. It's one of those days again, he thought, I must be losing it.  
Coffee meter full, he left the café waving goodbye to the staff. Now he could escape and do what he did best. About a couple of blocks down, he slipped into an alley, hiding far out of sight from the street and stripped off his civilian clothes and donned on his mask. Look out New York, school's out and Spidey is on the way!….so corny and highschool can't even pass for an excuse any more, he thought. Once Peter had put on his gloves, he shot a strand of web upwards and pulled himself high into the air, like the reverse of a bungee jumper and somersaulted above onto the roof of the building. Like an athlete, he sprinted along the tops of the buildings leaping from one to the other and then, after reaching high speed, instinct kicked in and he launched himself off the roof, soaring through the air-

^“Slow-mo style!”^

(Yellow?! Get out of here)

^“What? We're in this story, don't we have the right to speak?”^  
[“Technically no, this is Spider-man's side after all.”]

(“What he said, now go away!”) 

^“But-”^

(“Now!”)

-soaring through the air. He spun another strand of web, latching on to another, distant building and effortlessly swung across the city. This was always the best part of his being him, free and not held down by society, no matter what the media of police said about him, nothing felt as good as swinging around on patrol like this. Now, to find a certain someone if he was still in town.

 

“You know, this whole 'not killing when Spider-man is in the city' is a lot harder than I thought. How's a mercenary supposed to make a living if he has to avoid offing people?”

[“They're not supposed to, that's what criminals do.”]

Deadpool sat on the ledge of generic building number one-hundred and twenty-two, wolfing down his taco. Bored out of his mind and talking to his boxes.

^“Aww, man, can't we just hook up with the Kingpin or something?”^

[“If we do that, Spidey will come down on us like a ton of bricks”]

“HOT bricks...that came out wrong.”

^“Or did it?”^ 

Suddenly, Wade could see a spot in the distance, which changed into a figure and moving fast in his direction.

[“Well, speak of the devil”]

“Shh, we don't want what happened last time, yoohoo, oh Spider-man!” he called waving to the web-slinger.

Spider-man slowed as he approached the man doing jumping jacks on the roof and calling to him. In one motion, he flung his body forward and landed nimbly on his feet. He flexed his muscles, rolling his shoulders backwards to ease the tension. Wade watched with interest as the Spider's body glided smoothly beneath the suit, he could feel something settling in the pit of his stomach. His breakfast making a comeback?

“mmMMmmm,” Spidey groaned as he stretched, “It took a lot of swinging to find you, my body's aching. Ah, that's better.”

“Find me?” Deadpool questioned incredulously, cocking his head to one side.

“Just...erm making sure you're not getting into trouble,” Spider-man said

“Oh.” Peter could practically hear the disappointment drop in Deadpool's voice.

“I mean...” he was at a loss for words, he felt awkward, rubbing the back of his neck, a nervous habit. Lord, he must've sounded condescending like all the other super heroes Deadpool must've met.

“Whatever, since you're here, want a taco?” The merc said, holding out the filled tortilla. Spidey eyed it with caution. Then took it, examining it briefly.

“You didn't poison it did you?” he said as he took a bite.

Deadpool clicked his tongue, “Such little faith my little spider, I have worse ways of offing you than just poison, not that I ever will.”

So that sat side by side, munching tacos on the edge of a roof. Peter was at a loss for what to say, he did, after all, swing the equivalent of half the city trying to find Deadpool for a reason, but upon seeing him, it just started sounding too embarrassing even in his head. Deadpool was having a mental freak-out with his two other voices.

^“Spider-man is hanging out, with US!”^

[“We've must've done something right to deserve this.”]

^“This is totally awesome, and we didn't even have to shoot anyone!”^

[“Looks like our day just perked up.”]

The tacos were nice. Their rooftop lunch together came to an end, and it was time for another patrol. Spider-man got up, dusting off his suit. He still hadn't said what he'd wanted to say and technically, if they were going to go their separate ways this would be a perfect time to do so but at the same time, it didn't feel right. What if he was just making assumptions about Deadpool, if it was just wishful thinking on his part. then he'd really look like a fool. Then an idea came to mind which contradicted all his previous declarations, now he felt really embarrassed but Peter needed to make sure. He turned to the mercenary now making wax paper swans. Poor guy looked bored without his usual job.

“Hey Deadpool, I'll be around the city cleaning up the streets, if you're not doing anything else...” he trailed off as the mercenary looked up at him with a puzzled expression, “Would you like to join me, you know…team-up…?”

Almost without hesitation, the over-excited merc jumped up with glee, yelling a great big 'Yahoo' into the sky. Already Pete was regretting his offer. No take-backs.

“Would I ever, Baby-boy?” Deadpool grinned evidently through his mask “Hell yeah!”

“I told you to stop calling me that, you know how weird that sounds?”

“Heheh, sorry got carried away, you always know how to get me all hot and giddy,” Deadpool blurted before his brain, reasonable brain caught up. Spider-man stared at him with disbelief that you could almost see in his mask, in his widened eyes.

[“Ooh, there goes the 'not creepy at all' part.”]  
^“Wow, even his mask shows it, so adorable! Is that even possible in real life?”^

[“Happens all the time in comics. CGI nowadays does the trick in movies.”]

Spider-man narrowed his eyes at him.

^“Now he just looks disgusted”^

“Aww, now, you know what I mean, I'm your biggest fan after all, yeah, yeah?” Deadpool said trying to cover for himself, resulting in him doing a ten finger wave of desperation towards the web-slinger. Peter turned away, choosing not to comment on it in case it elicited another case of ear-worms and stuff he did not want to hear, not from a guy and especially not from this guy. Of course, not before muttering 'creep' from under his breath.

“Are you coming or not?” he said irritably, turning to look back at Deadpool over his shoulder.

“Are we walking?” the merc asked, trotting over to the ledge.

Spider-man sighed a small sound of dread and defeat, “No, no we're not.” He's going to go off like a rocket about this.

Five minutes later, both men we're swing their way through the Bronx, Deadpool clinging to Spidey's with his arms wrapped firmly around his waist.

“YeeeeEEEEAAAAH!”

Spidey sighed again. Knew this would happen he thought to himself. The guy was more kid than a man so much of the time. Thank goodness New Yorkers rarely looked up unless it was an explosion otherwise Peter would have no idea how he'll handle the oncoming humiliation barrage the press so professionally give him, the shame of carrying a fully grown insane adult man around the city, yelling like a total douchebag. How long was he planning on screaming like this for?! They soared through the streets looking for the occasional villain and encountering the odd mugger and heist. None of it was much trouble for them both, Spidey could take them down and web them up like an early Christmas present for the cops to pick up. Sometimes just for fun, Spider-man would swing down low enough for Deadpool to deliver a hefty boot in the face, enough to send them to lala land for the next couple of hours while the cops haul them in. This was by far better performance Deadpool had shown than his earlier days, no dead bodies and questionable methods. Peter's earlier assumptions seemed to ring true. They took a rest stop on the top a radio tower.

“Sheesh, is it just me or are you huff heavier than I last remembered?” Spider-man said a little breathless.

“Hey! That's a sensitive topic! You can't talk to a girl about her weight!”

Spider-man scoffed, “Yeah, true, you'd make a terrible female model.”

“Oooh, low blow, dude, low blow.”

“I can give you a low blow.”

The air went still around them.

^“An intriguing offer you present, Spider-man, oh man, I didn't know he could go there!”^  
[“I don't think that's what he meant.”]

Wade was at a loss, trying to decide whether he could shoot his mouth off or if that would be really bad idea. But his mouth went off anyway, or his body was about to anyway.

“Well, Spidey, if you so desire-” he began, arms reaching for the web-slinger. Uh or, bad idea man he thought to himself.

Suddenly a piercing scream cut the air, stopping Deadpool's advance as Spider-man turned to the source of the sound, the alley behind him. As he turned to look down Wade uttered a a quiet sound  
of relief.

[“Saved by the screams”]  
^“Awwww.”^

“Face it Deadpool,” Wade told himself, “Spidey will knock you into next year if you try anything.”

Spidey held up a finger, gesturing him to be silent as he focused on the dialogue below. Deadpool walked over to his side and joined him, watching an even unfold. There were three men and two women down in the alley. The ladies appeared to be backing away from the men towards a chain-link fence, almost clinging to each other in fear. The men advanced on them, taking it slow. One, the slender blonde was pleading with them, apologizing and promising them something, something about bringing other offerings.

“Please, I swear I'll get you what you need, just don't hurt us,” her pleas were nothing but fuel for the fire. Spider-man hated exchanges like this, which he'd probably encounter more in his line of work if he bothered stop and ask criminals on their job function, instead of the usual insta-beating he dished out.

“Can't get a bunch kids, you expectin' us to let you go fer that?” One man, scruffy beard and heavy overcoat snarled at her with an oddly British accent. Kids? Oh shit! Deadpool thought, it's one of those today.

[“This changes everything.]

^“We draw the line at kiddos, and it sounds like it's one of 'those' businesses”^

Another man mocked the pair, cackling like a lunatic and he was almost drooling at the girls, his sadistic grin and darting eyes made Spidey shudder, god knows what fantasies he had swimming around in that possibly drugged up brain. The third man, their apparent leader, stepped forward holding the crazy guy back, forced him to quiten down. A grim, no nonsense type.

“Sorry, but you both are now a risk,” he said.

“Yeah, and the boss don't pay fer mistakes!”

The dark brown-haired girl whimpered, her emaciated form trembling at the inevitability of the situation. The three men were closing in and the frightened women were losing alleyway fast.

“Deadpool...”

“On it Spidey...”

The two supers, leaped over the ledge, landing in the space between the men and the women which forced the three guys to draw back in surprise. The hero and anti-hero both rose up in s slow smooth motion, glaring at the three thugs.

“A little early to be picking on innocent girls, isn't it?” Spider-man said menacingly.

“You boys might wanna try someone your own size,” the threat in Deadpool's joke was chilling. 

Their leader cursed and commanded the two others to advance. The lunatic took to the fight eagerly, pouncing at Spider-man, arms out and grasping wildly. Spider-man's senses kicked in before the act and he brought one leg up, kneeing the crazy person in the belly before he could get a hold of the web-slinger. To his surprise, it wasn't enough to knock the guy out as the man started throwing wild punches at him. Spider-man dodged most of the blows, blocking one of them, he struck out with one foot, booting the guy across the alleyway into a wall. The bearded guy whipped out a switch-blade, eyes trained on Deadpool while his attention was focused on Spider-man. Wade called out to Spidey when he saw something sharp slicing through the air towards him, he jumped back before the blade could cut him. Almost instantly he pulled out his gun and shot the guy in the knee, shattered bones and obliterated muscle poked out from the wound as blood sprayed out like a broken tap, bringing him down cursing.

“Sit down!” he growled.

Spider-man saw this and began to protest when the lunatic caught his breath and made a lunge for him again. Cackling. He managed to wrap his arms around Spidey and both fell heavily to the ground. Good lord, Peter though, this guy is much stronger than he thought. He tried to pry the lunatic off but failed to get any leverage and the creep was drooling while staring at him through dilated pupils. 

“The hell!?” Peter barked in surprise, this guy really must be on drugs his pupils were blown out to the point it looked like his irises were black. He had to get him off before he had nightmares about this for the rest of the week.

“Get off me!” he yelled struggling against his grip. The lunatic merely grinned wider.

“Smells...gooooood,” he droned, the Spider's neck was right in his face and he opened his mouth to take a bite. But then, someone's boot came flying into him, sending the creep into the wall, again.

“You heard the man, no touch feely!” Deadpool yelled. 

He turned to Spidey and offered him a hand up. Peter smiled behind the mask and took it but as he was hoisted to his feet, his Spider-senses screamed again

“Deadpool, look out!” he yelled but two late, somehow the bearded man had gotten to his feet and attacked the mercenary again with his knife. This time, the blade met leather and scarred flesh, gashing him across his side. Deadpool grunted, seemingly more surprised than hurt. He lashed out, striking the man in the face and watched as he staggered back holding a broken nose. Wade let out a curse. How could this thug have gotten up, no gets up from a bullet to the knee. He looked down to see a bloody knee but no wound where the bullet had entered.

“What the f***?!” he said. Someone else with a healing factor?

He had no time to think, the third one who had held back for the duration of the brawl now had one of the girls, the brown-haired one in his arms and a gun to her temple. Everyone stopped in their tracks.

“On the ground, now, or I blow this bitch's brains out for you,” he threatened, this man meant business. Deadpool hesitated looking to the web-head. Even Spidey was hesitating, possibly going through another one of his plans.

“Now! Or you'll be cleaning the whore's brains off the walls!”

Then slowly, the web-slinger got on his knees and brought himself low, both palms on the ground. He looked up briefly, sending Deadpool a silent message to follow suit. Wade almost protested but Spider-man shook his head. Reluctantly, the mercenary followed his example, making a clumsy attempt at it. Better have a good plan in that pretty head of yours Spidey, he thought. This was humiliating to say the least. If this was on his terms, Deadpool would have offed all three jerks in two minutes, but no, killing is not allowed, not while Spider-man is around. He cursed under his breath again.

“Vince, get the rope, these two will have to do. Boss will looking for his next meal and we ain't waistin' time searchin'.”

“Meal? What, is your boss, like, Hannibal Lector and we're pigs-on-a-platter now?” Deadpool said not sounding as horrified by the idea as Spider-man was. He practically here the glee in his voice.

“Doesn't matter, you're dead and no one will ever know,” the man then grabbed the brunette by the hair, forcing her heads to his face and hissed cruelly into her ear, “And you two might just get to walk away from this, for now.”

He had pulled his gun away, pointed it upwards which was more than a perfect opportunity for Spider-man to act. He shot a strand of webbing at the firearm, sealing the barrel closed, the Leader grunted in surprise but not fast enough, Spidey yanked the gun from his hand faster than the man could react. Deadpool took this as his cue and launched himself at the stunned gunman, tackling him to the ground and out of reach of the young lady.

“Do me a favor, Spidey and get those broads out of here.”

Spider-man hesitated, “Wai-, what about you? You can't go up against them by yourself!”

“I'm mother-fucking Deadpool, and these little shits are nothing to me, now go ON! SCRAM!”

Spidey muttered something under his breath before grabbing the trembling girl and webbing her friend towards him. He told them both to hold on tightly as he prepared to web them away.

“You better come back in one piece,” he growled at Deadpool, making the mercenary smirk.

“Aww, is this love I feel for lil' ol' me?” He turned to say but Spider-man had already made his escape with the ladies clinging to him for dear life. He turned back to the three thugs, now closing in on him, expressions almost feral. Looks like somebody has had enough for today, but Wade wasn't done letting off steam.

He pulled out his guns, “Daddy needs to express some rage.”

^“Ooooh, movie reference!”^

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have I mentioned this is a slow build-up? No? Well it is and technically this is AU but with many similarities to the mainstream Earth 616. Bear with it as we travel down the rabbit hole. Please kindly leave a comment and kudo and feel free to criticise (though Wade might pay you a visit if you do)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is much shorter I think, sorry I've been busy lately but I'll be churning out the next one soon.

Spider-man landed quietly on the roof of a rundown, abandoned residential building. Travelling a long way around the city to look for a hiding place while carrying both women. Usually one person was the limit for this Spider-cab but these two, he realized weighed barely anything. What were they doing with those guys, he wondered. He didn't exactly know where to take them, but he had to find some place for them to lay low while he went back for Deadpool.

“Stay here, don't talk to anyone and don't let anyone find you, we'll find out what's going on later,” he said leaving them both there.

“Wait where are you going?” the blonde asked grabbing him by the arm.

“I have to go back, my...the other guy is still there.”

“But, you're leaving us here?!”

“I can't leave him there either, look just go inside and stay there, I'll come back for you two when this is over.”

Without a further word, the webbed hero left the two women on the roof and swung his way back, hoping that Deadpool was still there, and more importantly, hadn't blown their heads off, that would seriously upset him and his stomach. When he finally made it back. All four of them were gone. The thugs and Deadpool. Peter flung himself off the line and landed on the side of the alley, sticking to the brick wall. His eyes narrowed as he surveyed the area below. Where could they have gone, and more urgently, where the hell is Deadpool?! He crawled down the wall getting a closer look, preferring to keep a good distance from the ground and stay hidden in the shade, in case those crazy idiots decide to come back for whatever reason. But as he got closer, he spotted a trail of blood, already darkening in the air ad forming a scarlet almost burnt brown with red splotches on the pavement leading even further down the alleyway and disappearing behind a door. He couldn't have been gone have been that long? He followed the trail past the broken door, crawling along the ceiling. It appeared to be the emergency stairway of the building, shabby with litter and dirt caking the walls. Peter continued on, it was so quiet his brain took this opportune time to go through the list of crazy possibilities of what took place here. Either this was where the thugs had gone and he was about to head right in, or Deadpool actually managed to bust in that door and drag himself up the stairs. Maybe they even took the fight here or maybe those three men managed to somehow overpower the Mercenary and drag him away, Peter hoped for the alternatives, any of them. Knowing Deadpool, pretty unlikely but these three weren't normal, they healed quicker than any civilian he knew and were stronger than any average man, god knows with that anything can happen, Peter had seen stranger things in life. He cursed quietly under his breath. The silence was grinding on his nerves. The trail smudged to a halt under another door at the stairwell on the fourth floor, a well worn one, and the lock under the handle had been broken in. Peter unstuck himself from the stairs and landed softly, he reached for the handle and cautiously opened the door. Everything slowed to a crawl as he held his breath, his body tensing, not knowing what could be waiting behind the door and having no back up or cover screamed BAD all over. He'd have to add that to his ever-growing list of worst ideas if he came out of this one alive. No point in chickening out now. In one swift motion, Peter turned the knob and instinctively sent his body into a half crouch, expecting a room full of criminals, or bodies or both. Instead he was staring at a closet stuffed carelessly with cleaning equipment, and a gun pointed between his eyes. Not what he expected at all.

Deadpool had kept the part where let his violent nature rip into the criminals, sure they were alive, borderline falling apart but alive. But even with the ripping and riddling of bullets, the idiots managed to do a number of him themselves before they had to make a hasty retreat.  
[“Crawling more like”]

^“Wonder how they go around unnoticed, looking like Swiss cheese and all”^

...Still in case they left for more reinforcements, a bloodied and broken Deadpool stumbled from the scene into the left building. Jimmying two doors with his one good arm and deciding to take his rest in a closet which smelled like bleach and god know whatever crap this equipment had been cleaning for years. He was all cut up, jaw probably broken from a ridiculously strong punch to the face earlier and a few bullets wounds in his legs, gut and back each, the bullets themselves still stuck in the flesh. His arm was shattered from multiple blows from a nail bat, probably a god few ribs too

“Don't think about it, focus. On, napping, naps are good for healing and the complexion.”

[“You're ugly mug isn't going to get any better with sleep.”]

“Oh, shut up, can't a man spend one day without being pissed on by his own voices?”

^“We piss on you all the time!”^

“Oh great, I feel better already.”

As he began to close his eyes and nod off, he heard the very small sound of someone turning the door knob. Wade cursed to himself, no way did they come back all the way to find him.

[“With that trail of guts you left behind, a two-year old could find you”]

Well if it was a little kid, he'd be as scarred for life as Wade's cancerous body, the door clicked and began to creak open very slowly, letting a small beam of light flood in. Dear god, he thought, whoever it is, is going to see his face and he was in no mood for the reaction he got from everyone who did. He tried to scramble for his mask which he must've dropped while he'd been fumbling in there. The crack was growing wilder by the second and all of a sudden, time was moving too fast for Wade's comfort.  
Ah heck with it, he thought, a gun in the face would at least distract the poor SOB from his scarred visage. He reached for his gun and aimed it the moment the door was fully ajar, only for him to see it pointed straight at Spider-man between the eyes.

^“HOLY SHIT!”^

Holy shit indeed. If it weren't for the mask, he could guess little Spidey was surprised or shocked underneath. Now problem number two, Spidey could see he had no mask on, add disgust to the list as he watched the other man back away, hand held up in front of him. Today was turning out great.

“Spidey!? Oh crap, crap, crap!” he exclaimed in surprise and began rummaging around for his mask and clumsily pulling it on, but when he looked up and saw Spider-man still staring at him, he knew the man had seen everything. His flight reflex kicked in as he doubled his efforts, scrabbling around the floor of the closet for his mask and practically diving out the door. He saw me, he saw me, Spidey saw my face, he kept repeating in his head, shit shit shit. Deadpool zipped further up the stairway to the roof, crashing through the door. All of it catching the webslinger by surprise as he watched the mercenary make his escape. It all happened so fast and so unexpected, for someone who could laugh in the face of torture and things worse than dying he'd never thought of Deadpool being capable of panic. Wade made it out on the roof before realizing he really should have gone down the stairs. It wasn't like he could fly and now he'd expertly trapped himself on the top of a building and apart from jumping off, which would have been a bad idea, he had no way out.

“Oh well,” he said, hopefully Spidey will have been so freaked out by his ugly mug that he'd have high-tailed it in the opposite direction. The broken door creaked as someone pushed softly past it, and there was Spider-man who spotted him immediately. Wade rushed to pull his filthy mask on before realizing that it was rather shredded, no way it could hide his face now. Wade cursed. He really ought to have offed the knife-brandishing guy for cutting up his face and his everything.

^“He saw us, he fucking saw us”^

[“Too late for that, he saw us anyway while we were busy snoozing in the cleaning closet.”]

“Deadpool?”

^“Ah shit...”^

“Don't look, don't fucking look at me!” he screamed flinging his arms over his face, his scarred voice coming out like gravel scraping on metal. Spidey flinched at the sound. Crap, Wade thought, I scared him. He turned away, still shielding his face, like he always did when he was caught without a mask, always protecting his non-existent dignity. Scared of people seeing how disgusting he really was. The insults and mockery he could take, it's what he knows best but it was when 'they' pity him, that really terrified him. Pity. Always the first thing the good ones feel when they see him beneath the costume for the first time. Pity for the foul-mouthed, insane mercenary.

“Just, go. Get away,” god now he sounded like a real jerk. Spider-man will most definitely not want to hang out with him any more, not with an ugly jerk. Screw it, Wade thought, it was going to happen sooner or later, it just so happened to be soon.

“Didn't ya hear me? Get outta here!”

But Spidey didn't move, he just froze to the spot, not looking away for one second as Deadpool backed further to the edge. If Wade could guess, he'd bet fifty bucks that Spider-man wasn't even blinking.

[“I bet seventy-five Spider-man is blinking.”]

^“Oooh, I bet...a thousand bucks he's getting all hot under.”^

[“Wait, have the holes filled up yet?”]

“Shut up, you guys don't even have money.”

“Deadpool!” a voice called out, bringing him back around. He turned to the voice. Spider-man still staring straight at him edging slowly towards him. Why the hell was web-head still here?! Deadpool took a quick peek over the side. Only one way out of this, the painful way. Without a second thought he took a suicide leap over the ledge down to the pavement below. 

“What the-? Deadpool!”

Five floors down he managed to scramble around with his teleporter until it began to whir softly.

“Come on, baby, don't let daddy down this time,” Wade muttered finally slapping it to life and he disappeared in puff of smoke. For a nauseating second he felt his body do a spiral into another dimension before it spat him out again in a different location, hopefully far away from Spider-man. He discovered he was still falling as he plummeted right into a dumpster. Hard. The clang of metal against bone echoed down the alley.

“Ending up in an alley in two consecutive days? That has got to be criminal!”

^“What was that ten floors yesterday?”^

[“At least it wasn't as bad as yesterday, we were falling high enough to break every bone.”]

Deadpool struggled to move his leg when it finally popped out from the trash, mangled and oddly shaped.

[“Whoops, spoke too soon.”]

^“And no Spidey on top of us to make it better.”^

[“I don't think he'll ever want to be near us again, not with the way we chased him off.”]

Wade let his head fall back, tired and quite pissed off. With himself. He'd gotten careless and let Spidey see the worst part of him. Let him see that he was as broken inside as he was on the outside. It wouldn't come as a surprise if Spider-man never wanted to talk to him again, being the asshole he was. Congratulations Wade, he thought, your jerkishness has officially alienated you from the Amazing Spider-friend. Funny how they were sharing tacos not too long ago like best buddies, which chances are have all gone kaput.  
Deadpool began to crawl out of the dump landing with a thud as tumbled out of the mess. His leag was beginning to reconstruct itself but without additional aid it could end up regenerating into a wonky stump of a leg, which would be detrimental to his career. He staggered away back to his hideout, collapsing on his already filthy mattress to fix his limb. Not caring about the smell which clung to him and was beginning to attract a swarm of flies. Fitting he should end up in trash today. He felt like it. He let the voices continue to mock and reprimand him, babbling away until merciful sleep took over. Death was still more beautiful than sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some things are harder to dig up, and sometime's you can't go it alone.

There wasn't even the sound of an over 200 pound man hitting the concrete and when Spider-man finally broke out of his daze as Deadpool literally did a leap o'suicide over the side of the building, he looked over to see...nothing. It didn't even look like the guy touched the ground. No matter where he looked, there was no sign of Deadpool. He couldn't have disappeared that quick unless it was another one of his tricks.   
Peter gave up, he'd figure it out later. Now, he was in a bit of shock trying to wrap his brain around what just happened. He'd caught Deadpool without his mask, and he had to admit though Deadpool had warned that he wasn't pretty underneath, he wasn't expecting a half zombified mess underneath. But what had got him off guard was that Deadpool wasn't Deadpool without it. He was someone underneath, someone who didn't want to be seen. Peter collapsed back against a giant air vent under the cover of its shadow, sliding down he removed his own mask and stared at it deep in thought. It stared back with big, slanted white eyes as if He'd known for a long time that a mask was a mask, and in the end, Peter understood he was no different. With the mask, he could joke, mess around and be scared at the same time because no one could see it. He could be Spider-man and not scrawny Peter Parker because no one would know it was him behind the mask.   
Peter's thumb traced along the black lining around the lens which gave it a confident and mischievous look, not what Peter considered his demeanor.   
There were so many times he'd considered showing flash and his cronies back in highschool, that Puny Parker was in fact Spider-man. The reactions would be priceless but he couldn't, not without putting everyone in danger. Deadpool may not have the same problem but his was definitely no small matter. It kind of scared Peter to see the big guy turn like that, but anybody would if they were that scarred. Something happened to him, but Deadpool wouldn't be spilling the beans any time soon.  
Time to get back. Spider-man Got up and pulled the mask over his head. The two women he'd left behind were probably waiting for him, and he had some pertinent questions that needed answers ASAP. He had a feeling, a bad feeling about this.

As soon as he reached the building he'd dropped them off in his Spider sense began to hum. Crap, he thought, I hope they're okay. He entered through a broken window. The room was filthy and deserted, the floor littered with papers and trash. As he walked through the mess, he felt his foot collide something generating a loud clang that was almost too loud. He instinctively dropped to a half crouch. When he looked down he saw a battered old kettle rolling around on the wooden boards. Peter sighed, the day must be getting to him, or rather his Spidey sense. It wasn't going off the handle but it still made him feel uneasy, that and something else he couldn't quite put his finger on. He continued to search through the building, now and then calling out, but no reply.

“Hello?”

No signs of struggle anywhere but the ladies were nowhere to be seen. Maybe they left. Who was going to wait around in a dump like this?

“Gah!” he muttered, his personal alarm bell was driving him crazy with all the humming, “If I'm not in any immediate danger I'd prefer you to stop nagging at me.”

Suddenly, there was a small creak behind Peter.

“Huh?” Peter turned but saw nothing, he scanned his surroundings but he was alone, at least he thought he was, then the feeling from earlier grew and he began to understand. Peter felt like he was being watched. Could it be?

“Deadpool, is that you?” Peter called out, no response, “Deadpool!”

Then as soon as the feeling became clear, it was gone and so was the humming. Strange he thought. As he looked around, he was starting to get the shivers.

“Time to get out of here, this place is creeping me out,” he said. Would he have back-tracked, Peter would have noticed the claws in the wall. 

Peter was exhausted out of his mind, in college, but so worn out he could barely hear or notice anything. It was probably a bad idea spending the last few nights browsing around on the net, resting little. But the scuffle that day and the girls who were involved left a bad feeling in his gut, like this wasn't some normal drug or human traffic operating in the cesspools of New York. Something big and bad was going on. He looked around for various articles on anything that could be related to the incident. But what had he to go on? Potential kidnappings? There were several of those every day. Murder? As common as eating and sleeping. The only thing that stood out was how inhuman those men were, they could heal almost as well as Deadpool.   
What the man said, 'the boss doesn't pay for mistakes', meant they were working under someone else. Peter sighed over a coffee in his usual place. If he had to guess, he wouldn't be surprised if Kingpin had his hand in this. He turned his gaze out to the window, after searching around he still had no leads. The only thing that popped up now and then were a few articles of missing people but no more and the investigation was coming to a dead end. He didn't notice the young waitress walking over to his table.

“More coffee?” she asked.

“Uh, y-yes, thank you.”

“Something the matter, you've been looking a bit off all alone here,” she said smiling gently as she poured him more of their special brew from the pot.

“Mmm, it's no big deal I guess,” he lied, “Just some stuff I can't work out.”

“Work?”

“No, no, freelance photography is hardly trouble with other than work being scarce sometimes.”

She chuckled then she approached a bit closer, “Girlfriend problems?”

Peter blushed, “Actually I'm not going out with anyone so nothing like that.”

“Oh? Why not? A cute guy like you, shouldn't be that hard to hook up with someone.” She was flirting with him, the signs that she wanted him to accept. And he had to admit, she was pretty hot. But after his previous failed relationship with a girl from school, he wasn't ready to take the leap yet, probably not ever.

“Yeah? Well, if you knew how difficult this guy is you'd do a heel-face turn on me, even my friends have given up.”

She laughed, a note of pity and disbelief in her voice, “If you're finding work hard you can always work here, boss is always looking for people like you to help out, you get to hear all kinds of stories in this line of work.”

“And lose the charm of being the regular customer, thanks but I'll pass,” he smiled.

She laughed again, “Funny and cute. Well, whenever you change your mind I'm right here.”

As she turned around to return to her work an idea dawned on Peter.

“Actually, have you heard anything unusual on the street, maybe about disappearances, weird stuff going on.”

The young woman paused, “Well, there was this one time some guy came in looking like he'd just crawled out of the wrong side of bed, talking about some girl he'd picked up, looked scared and she said she needed somewhere to go. Said they'd gone to his place when 'they' showed up, drained him, left him for dead. Then he went on about 'them' looking for him if they found out he wasn't dead. Creep took off and didn't come back. We all thought he was some junkie or madman. Whatever he was, I'm glad he didn't come back, gave me nightmares that day.”

“Did he say who he was? Or where he was going?”

“Nope, came and went the same way, terrified out his mind.”

“Did he talk about the girl, say what she looked like?”

“Yeah, said she was a walking stick with a pretty face, he felt sorry for her.”

The same kind of girl he'd seen that day, with the same kind of air about her that brought pity to her. He began to realize that something was wrong with her. If Peter had a bad feeling in his gut before, this was sending shivers up and down his spine.

“Why'd you want to know, did you know the guy?” the waitress asked.

He shrugged, “No, I don't know him. Just some rumor going round in college that's all, that's some freaky story.”

She agreed, “Probably just some story, I wouldn't get to into it if I were you.”

Peter didn't answer, he turned his gaze out the window once more. This sounded like some horror flick that he really didn't 'want' to get into, but as usual, Spider-man wouldn't be able keep his nose out of anything like this, not when it he had a sense of duty to his city. But the man left no info, just a bad taste in everyone's mouths.  
There was only one guy who could literally have an ear on the street and Peter was about to pay him a visit.

For most people, being a lawyer wasn't easy. Every day someone walks into a courtroom it becomes a complex dance around the truth because for most people, they can't tell if a person is lying. Of course, for Matt the case is different, being that he can bypass all the subtleties and go straight to the heart of the matter. After all, who could've guessed a blind man could had x-ray hearing. Problem then was, convincing everyone else he knew the truth. The initial reaction always helped, when he caught the perpetrators off guard, but he couldn't always bank on it. At least, not the professional ones. And this was where his years of studying in law and human psyche came in useful. Every single person had a button that could end it all, and it was just a matter of digging around until he could find it. Didn't always work out. That was why he was Daredevil at night. If he couldn't bring justice to the courtroom, then he'll bring justice to them. Of course, Foggy wasn't fond of the idea of his best friend 'prancing' around at night as a vigilante. Hence, here he was listening to Nelson, blowing off about Matt getting a real life and laying off the 'tights' for bit. Matt smirked. If there was anything Foghorn Nelson wasn't good at, it would be forgetting Matt granted they do work together but as well as being the only other normal person who knew who he was, Foggy was a good friend and good man. Without him around to nag him Matt would probably have lost touch with the normal life, kept his feet on the ground so to speak. But as always, their little exchange in the office would be cut short. He could hear the familiar heart beat coming ever closer and the young man knew it. But it sounded off.

“Sorry Foggy, we have a guest so you're going to have to save the lecture for later.”

Just as he said so, Peter came in the door, greeting Nelson with a smile.

“Hello there, Mr Parker, you look good today,” Foggy said, returning the gesture, giving Peter a firm handshake.

“Thanks, I'm flattered but today is one of those days.”

“Ah right, I'll… leave you with Matt then, I have something I was supposed to do anyway.”

“Thanks, Mr Nelson, see you around,” Peter said, politely shaking Foggy's hand again and waited as Matt's friend gently closed the door.”

“Peter.”

“Matt.” The young man's voice sounded strained. From what he could hear, Peter wasn't joking, he wasn't in top shape. Not ill but not at a hundred percent. It seems he hadn't been sleeping well if he'd slept at all, which he probably hadn't.

“Need a drink?”

“Just had coffee.”

“That isn't going to help, you have insomnia now or is there something else going on?”

Peter's breath hitched, like he was unsure of himself. Something was on his mind but he was hesitating, time for a change of scenery.

“You haven't had lunch yet, why don't we go out somewhere, on me.”

“You were listening to my withering stomach again weren't you.” 

“Listen? I could hear it down the hall.”

Peter gave a little chuckle.

They both traveled a diner a few blocks down from the lawyers' office and as promised, Matt treated Peter to a meal. Peter began to tell him about what happened a few days ago, about the fight and the two women who were involved. He told Matt that those two were the only leads he had but they'd vanished before he could question them. He mentioned the three men he'd fought and their disturbing abilities and also what the waitress had told him of the strange lunatic that had walked into their café, generally voicing his concern over it.

“It's so bizarre there's no way to write it off. If you'd seen how scared those girls were you'd understand, damn, I should've stayed.”

“Why didn't you?” Matt asked.

The young man paused, considering his words before replying, “I had to go back for those guys, I...hadn't dealt with them yet.” Matt arched an eyebrow. Peter should know by now he couldn't lie to Matt, well he wasn't lying but he wasn't telling the whole truth either. Peter seemed so flustered though he'd decided to let it go, wiping his hands with a napkin.

“So, you've lost your only source of info and lost sleep over trying to chase a dead line and now, you've to me because I'm a lawyer and you think I'd have more luck with this.”

“If you want to put it that way, yeah I guess, look try not to rub it in.”

Matt smirked, “Well you're right, in fact, I've been looking into this with Foggy for a while now.”

“How long?”

“A couple of months.”

Peter couldn't help as his mouth hung open. He opened and closed it repeatedly like he was struggling to get the words out.

“A couple of months?!” he choked out.

“Don't feel too left out about it, not even the Avengers know...or care, this is one the cases which go far under the radar than most.”

“But this kind of thing-” Peter took a deep breath and sighed, his head in his hands as he tried to process this, a habit of his when he was stressed or in deep thought. If Murdock was tailing after this case for that long, it probably means that this has gone way back. Not even Kingpin could be that discrete, he couldn't be sure.

“Do you think, Kingpin is involved in this?”

“Him? That fat ass doesn't need to be this secretive, his business runs on extortion and shady partnerships, everyone knows that, so to answer your question, no.”

Peter sat back, his exhaustion was really getting to him, “I really don't like the sound of this.”

“I don't like it any more than you,” Matt said. Suddenly his cellphone began to beep. It was Foggy requesting him to get back to the office.

“My lunch break is over, walk with me.”

Matt paid for the meal and tipped the diner generously while Peter waited outside, absent-mindedly toeing at the kerb. Obviously the avenger wouldn't be involved, their line of work was mostly bigger and more obvious threats than this, like Galactus. This, this was street level, no lower than street level, way lower than street level. And Peter had never dug this deep. Matt appeared and extended his walking stick. Peter watched with interest. Sometimes the guy was so good, he'd forget he was actually blind. Heck, he fought better than Peter sometimes which really just rubbed his ego raw, but Matt was also really kind and a good person overall and he fought with responsibility. To Peter it was all that mattered. Matt turned to him and gestured to Peter to walk with him.

“So did you find out much about this?”

“Not enough, Foggy has tried to make an appeal for more support in the investigation but we've been refused every time. We're running out of resources and options and there hasn't been much to work from since we opened it up. I doubt it's even official.”

Peter frowned at the pavement ahead of them as they rounded the corner.

“How can they just let it sink like that?”

“Too many other cases, more important cases. Too obscure, or the authorities just don't want to look into it. Take your pick.”

“What made you start?”

“A couple of months ago, I got a tip from an acquaintance of mine about some underground activity stirring up. She came directly to our office one night, and told us that people were starting to talk about some new group. Didn't say who, or where just the rumors.”

“That's all you got? You don't have any proof on her word,” Peter commented incredulously. 

“And yet, you believe the words of an ordinary waitress given by a lunatic.”

“Touché.”

They took a detour, passing through a small playground as some kids ran past, playing cops and robbers. A young child of about five, the smallest of the group was left behind.

“I'm a walking lie detector remember, she was serious. But we didn't know what to do with the info out of the blue, that was until I never heard back from her again after that.”

“Wait, she's gone missing?!” Matt nodded. He tapped on the front desk, greeting the receptionist as they made their way past her and up the stairs towards the office

“She's not the only missing person thus far, I've been keeping an ear out and a few cases of missing persons have popped up these past few months, and some sightings of an emaciated female last seen with a few of them. But that's it.” Matt pushed past the narrow corridor as the finally reached the door. He went waited as Peter the unnecessary but obligatory courtesy, opening the door for a blind man. “The police will assume that she is a simple prostitute like every other they see on the streets, and these people were involved in kidnappings. A simple answer to make it easier.”

Peter gave him a shocked look, “That's it?! Kidnappings and they're just waving it off? What if it was a serial killer, would they take it seriously?”

Matt traced his fingers over some papers and files left on his desk, more work. So that's what Foggy was up to.

“No.”

“Why?”  
He left the new stuff where they were and began rummaging through the cabinets.

“You want to know why they treat the missing as unrelated, irrelevant? Because they are all nobodies.” He said harshly, then softened when he felt Peter flinch, “You mentioned before the guy who walked in was treated as lunatic, by everyone, right? That's who these people are, homeless, criminals, lowlifes, crazy people don't get treated as equals, hell racism is still a sore point in America and that includes the X-men, what makes you think your café lunatic will earn anybody's respect even if he was telling the truth? No one, sorry Peter, but no one cares about a bunch of people who don't matter to society, that's just how it works.”

Peter hung his head, letting out a defeated sigh. Matt felt sorry for him. If it were him in Peter's shoes, he'd just about thrown in the towel, some things seemed so impossible. But the rhythm in the young man's heart sped up, and Matt knew he wasn't about to give up, not yet. That was just the way Peter was, who Spider-man is, righteous, caring, often annoying but most of all, he never gave up on those people he thought could be saved, and in his book, nearly every person has a second chance.

“That's where we come in,” he said as he tossed a couple of files in front of Peter, “If Matt Murdock can't get justice by day, Daredevil will do it by night. Better rest up, get some reading done. You're going to need all the info in these.” 

No one said being a lawyer was easy, and that's where he came in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I'm going detective in this and, no, I am no lawyer, but the idea seemed cool at the time. How it works is that evidence is given by detective to plan out how the effective the defense or prosecution is but as I've seen from the comics, Matt does his own investigations.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Busy, but still writing away.

Peter really had to give it to Matt. As Daredevil, he was meticulous in his investigations making full use of his abilities to get where Matt by day couldn't, piecing together all the evidence and findings he could get in his files which he kept mostly secret from others except Nelson and now, Peter had them. He'd discovered that all the recent incidents usually involved unimportant people, homeless, criminals, immigrants, and so on, the only thing that they all had in common. It seemed that Matt had tried to bring this to light, believing that it could be the work of some organisation or gang coming to its début but since all the 'victims' were street lurkers and slums, they technically don't exist, and apparently insignificant, reasoning that they may have been killed in some conflict or just croaked in some abandoned alley. And because of this Matt was declined. This was the very reason why Peter nor Matt could fully trust the system, and as Spider-man and Daredevil, were branded vigilantes. And for this it meant that someone had to take the law into their own hands, if not anything could run around on the streets freely with the money and right paperwork. This was both his and Daredevil's responsibility.  
However, Peter's thoughts fell back to his encounter that day and he couldn't shake off the feeling it wasn't some simple gang activity, the way the men referred to their boss was...sinister. And as he had looked through the files he found even more disturbing similarities between the victims. Death from multiple lacerations at the major arteries and mutilations. Bled dry. It was like they were used in some ritual or something, which he'd encountered before but...God, they were creepy no matter how much experience he had with cultists. But however disturbing the case, he wasn't about to let this go on. Something as dangerous and twisted like this would not last in his city, not if he could help it. There was little to go on, even if he could piece together what was happening, there were no leads, at least, not yet. Maybe it was time to pay someone else a visit, someone with more knowledge on the paranormal and magic.

As usual the creep factor never failed to kick in whenever he was close to Doctor Strange's house, or castle shaped manor. He says the turrets and towers help amplify his magic, although Peter couldn't be sure if he wasn't just saying this. No wonder he didn't have many friends.  
Peter quietly entered through 'his' window, encountering Strange right in the middle of a ritual. Surprising Spidey. Usually it took a while before the sorcerer ever showed up.

“Oh Strange, didn't expect to see you here, now, I hope I'm not interrupting anything.”  
The sorcerer remained cross-legged in the centre of a magical circle, drawn with a chalk. Not opening his eyes to glare at his uninvited guest.

“No, Spider-man you are not interrupting me, I had specifically picked this window for you for times like these so you would not disturb me when I am working.”

“Ouch, Doc you didn't have to put it like that.”

“Do I have reason not to?” Finally, Strange finished with his chanting and powered down. He got up once the circle stopped glowing and dusted himself off lightly, turning around. When he saw the man's face Peter couldn't help but notice that he looked tired, ill and tired.

“I suppose, you're here about something, a matter that is out of your league?”

“Oh Doc, you know me, sticking my nose into everything is my forté, but this is important.”

Doctor Strange made his way over to an old pine table littered with glassware and potions and notes that bore symbols, drawing and letters of some mystic language, and began to clear the table, putting everything neatly in its place.

“I know, the disappearances and bloodless victims.”

“Wait, you know?” If it weren't for the mask, Doctor Strange would've seen Peter's eyes shining like some awestruck kid, definitely not a look to go with Spider-man.

“I am SORCERER SUPREME, Protector of every living soul on Earth, I would be ill-fitted for this responsibility if I could not discern the objectives of a young man such as yourself.”

Spider-man stayed silent for a bit, “How long are you going to keep throwing those at me?”

“As long as I wish.”

Peter smiled however, he knew this feeling well, and in reality, Strange and him shared a good friendship. Even if he treated Spider-man like a the young and inexperienced hero that he is he was in truth cared about him. And Peter liked to think Strange found his humor refreshing.  
Many other people just find him irritating. And suddenly a small thought manifested in the back of Peter's mind, this was all very familiar, albeit reversed, with Deadpool.

“I have stated that this isn't what you should involve yourself in, you are young and not everything in this world is easily understood. Force your way into this and you may not come out the same person you were.”

“Then why don't you do something about this? It's another one of those weird cults right so you can handle it?”

Suddenly Doctor Strange turned abruptly towards Spider-man, his expression dark and piercing.

“No.”

“W-what do you mean no?”

“This is something I can't reach into, it's a darkness that rots and infects whatever it doesn't destroy on contact. If not the body, it warps the mind, if not the mind then the soul,” suddenly Strange was right in front of Spider-man, grabbing the webslinger by both arms, “This is not some lunatics fanciful play, Spider-man, this different.” 

He let go of Spider-man, wearily dragging himself over to the corner. Doctor Strange waved a glowing hand, making a gold-inlaid, antique but magical armchair appear in the spot just as he allowed himself to fall into it. His head propped up on one elbow as he kneaded his forehead with a pained expression. Only now did Peter see just how tired he really was, as if he'd been working way overtime and he began to wonder if the magic circle from earlier was for himself.

“Doc are you-?”

“I've had to strengthen myself through meditation and magic, I have already delved in deeper than I should,” Doc lifted his face up at Spider-man, “There are some that are not susceptible to this evil and I can only call others to do this, you are not one of them.”

He was saying this with sincere concern, Peter could feel it, but he was desperate. No matter what the warnings were, or how dire the consequences he couldn't let this go. He'd never forgive himself if he didn't try.

“Please, Strange, this is my city as much as this world is precious to you, you know I can't let this go on. At least let me find somebody to help.”

The sorcerer's disapproving eyes didn't change, seemingly holding Peter's in a frightening stare. Finally he sighed and closed his eyes.

“There's one person that may be able to help you but you must go ask him yourself.”

 

“Morbius!” Spider-man called as he entered the abandoned lab facility through the broken window. Nothing but the haunting sound of the wind as it whistled through the shattered rooms. Peter shivered. This wasn't the first time he'd been here but usually it was during the day but even then the terrible state of the labs apart from the obviously used equipment still freaked him out a little, like every other abandoned building that creaked and groaned. At night, this place was just that perfect amount of terrifying, perfect, Peter thought, for a vampire. Morbius would complain at Spider-man for disturbing him since during the day he liked to rest, he did most of his work at night, usually hunting other creatures that only came out after sundown. Studying and experimenting with them. By now he'd come to terms with his condition but it was still inconvenient to have the bloodlust threatening to rear its ugly head now and again, with it, he couldn't interact normally with other people without being on high alert. Still he never did shoo him off, the webslinger was the only one who would bother visiting him. But tonight, it seemed Morbius wasn't home, to Peter's disappointment. He couldn't even get the opportunity to throw in the joke he'd prepared for his first night visit. Still he'd come all the way here, and his curiosity got the better of him. He looked around stepping carefully over the broken furniture and glass shards littering the floor.  
“Oh man, this place is like a haunted hospital,” he commented as his arms reached around himself, hugging tightly, more out of apprehension than cold. As he peered around he noticed a pile of notes scattered around a work top, probably Morbius' research. Unable to resist his curiosity, he began to leaf through the various stained pages scattered precariously over the work top. Mostly it was haematology based, some genetics and historical information. Then underneath most of the papers, Peter's eyes traced over some more disturbing works not in Morbius' field, myth and occult. One page was written about his observations of a group of people, women mostly, who possessed similar skittish and fearful demeanors, ended on at a giant question mark. Attached to the page was a picture of a particularly familiar lady. He had no time to take a closer look when he felt a presence behind him. Oh crap, he thought as Spider-man whipped around, bracing for a fight. It was Mobius, staring straight into him with red eyes, Peter could never tell if he was hungry or not.

“You're not planning to take a bite out of me are you?”

The man stood there wordlessly, just staring icily at Spider-man. Peter shivered. What's with the silent types today? He was about to beat a hast retreat, when Morius finally opened his mouth.

“No, I wouldn't dream of it.”

“Uh great, hey listen, can't you not creep people out?”

“My apologies, I haven't taken blood for sometime now and my mind isn't as quick as it should be, food keeps me nourished but it isn't enough to have me operate at full strength, the way I prefer it.”

“Right...”

An uncomfortable silence permeated the air around them, at least it was for Peter, as always he was terrible at reading expressions if Morbius had any other than a permanent snarl that warped his face from the transformation. However, he didn't seem hostile.

“I see you found some of my research,” he said, motioning towards the table behind Spider-man. Peter followed the gesture, turning briefly back at the mess of notes. When he turned back, suddenly Morbius had closed the space between them in a flash. Up close, the guy was a lot scarier looking with his bat-like face, and it was a far too close for comfort. He reached a pallid hand towards the webslinger. Peter shut his eyes tight and his whole body tensed as he waited for the claws to grab him, but they didn't, instead reaching around him to pick up some of the papers. Spider-man stepped aside out of the way, allowing Morbius past as he skimmed over his research.

“I didn't take you for a believer in magic,” Spider-man said.

“I can't disapprove it either, after all, a few of your friends know magic.”

“Uh, yeah...”

Morbius frowned as he read through them, dissatisfied and disappointed. He let out a long breath and began to mutter under his breath.

“...to think that my research can only take me so far..”

“Morbius?”

“Many heroes like yourself have caught wind of these unsettling murders and abductions, Spider-man, not many have gotten far with it. I have also attempted to look into this even going so far as to find one of them.”

“Wait you caught one of them?”

“Yes, a young man, however he wasn't as co-operative as I'd hoped,” Morbius said grimly, pointing a clawed finger.

Spider-man followed it to a dark corner of the room, squinting his eyes until the image became clearer, far too clear.

“Oh my god!” he gasped as his eyes fell upon the body of a person, charred and crawling with insects that left slime all over it glistening and shifting beneath and over the black skin, like something out of a horror show. And not just flies or maggots like any corpse, as Spider-man reluctantly took a closer look, they were the vilest of creatures discolored and unnatural. They seemed to be eating away at the body and then secreting a substance that seeped into every tissue.

“He committed suicide by self immolation which was only partially successful, that was I was able to get some samples for study, however when I needed more, I found his body in this state. I tried to extract more tissue sample but found everything corrupted, like a poison that specifically aims at destroying all DNA, blood and bone. I haven't touched it but if I were to guess, that corpse would just turn to a puddle of putrid mass.”

“Ew, ew, urgh,” Peter struggled not to hurl in his mask, the smell that was coming from it was ungodly, “Poison is that what you call it?”

“There's nothing else to call this, I already examined it but as I expected,” Morbius brought Spidey to a microscope on the other side of the desk, commenting as he let Spider-man look through the lens, “It is unknown.”

All Spidey could see was a mass of swarming organisms in the dish, they appeared to be trying to devour the area around them and at the same time giving of some chemical in the reaction that was literally changing the atoms around them, destroying them. And on that thought, Spider-man looked up at Morbius.

“Uh, is it really a good idea to leave it in there?” he asked pointing at the dish.

“This is the tenth dish I've used, I have someone looking after the waste.”

Peter was flabbergasted, what on earth was this? He'd never seen anything like it and there was only one way he could describe everything from the worms to the slime they left, alive and corrupting. Was this what strange had meant? Peter's thoughts stopped in its tracks. And who on earth could possibly contain the effects of this sludge?

“Wait, who-?”

“That, doesn't concern you,” Morbius snapped, he coughed slightly, “What should is that it seems someone sent them to get rid of any biological evidence the body could give. These worms appeared too quickly and by unnatural means.”

“Oookay, so in the end, you got nothing. No leads.”

“Not exactly,” Morbius said, making a weak shamble back around the desk, picking up the page with the photo. He handed it to Spider-man.

“As you can see, I am no novice in the area of supernatural but I have delved into it a little if only to find the missing links, and they fit disturbingly well.”

“And what are they pointing to?”

“A vampire organisation, and an old one at that.”

Mythical Vampires?! Peter had heard rumors about them but had never encountered them himself before. Creepy demon worshippers that constantly chanted at nothing, yes but the real deal supernatural mythical creatures? Like something out of Halloween? This was just getting weird.  
The speechless stare Spider-man was giving Morbius made him smirk grimly.

“So you see why you are not ready for this yet?” he said brushing slowly past the webhead, “Don't feel too bad, there are other heroes much older than you who still don't know about this side of the world.”

“Kinda ironic isn't it, aren't you a vampire too?” 

“I am but a product of a scientific mistake, Spider-man, I possess no similarities to them except the dangerous thirst.”

Spider-man turned back to the photo, staring at the image of the young woman. She wore a low-cut top with a bag slung over her shoulders, her dirty blond hair flying with the wind around her face with a few stray strands caught on the bridge of her nose. Her eyes, rimmed with dark circles turned looking over her shoulder in the distance as the camera caught her at an angle. She appeared to be on edge, worried about something or someone watching her. Peter was unable to shake that fact that she was extremely familiar. Where could he have seen her before?

Seeing that Spider-man was taken with the photo, he gently pulled it from its clip.

“This young lady is one of the many whom I can safely say are ghouls.”

“What?”

“Ghouls, a term I found when investigating the creatures, are essentially servants to them, willingly or otherwise, they are bound in a blood contract to always serve their master unto death. They range from spies to informers in various aspects of society.”

“All? Even...the police?” Spider-man said incredulously.

“Yes, I think so, ones like this young lady here are lures, prostitutes who work for them, bringing them a constant supply of fresh blood daily and this is where the disappearances we have been investigating lead to.”

“Oh my god...” this was beginning to be a little too much for Peter to take as he stumbled slightly backwards on a desk. Leaning against the desk. And it began to come back now, realization hitting him, maybe a little too hard.

“I know where I've seen her now,” he gasped, flashes of the two girls in the alleyway, backed up against chain fence. The blonde one huddled over the dark haired girl, while she pleaded, eyes wide and wild with fear. Then, him, Spider-man swinging them away to safety, gone by the time he came back.

“I have to find her.”

“It's dangerous,” Morbius said.

“She could be in trouble, I can't leave her like that.”

“She could get you deeper into trouble, this isn't something you want to be involved in.”

“No maybe not but I can't leave an innocent person at risk and if these things are crawling around then the whole city is in danger. I may not like it but I have to do something.”

Morbius was beginning to take on a menacing look as Spider-man continued to remain stubborn. His usual hunched pallid appearance was swelling and darkening with his mood.

“This is no time for you childish heroism, Spider-man, stick your hand in this and it will change you forever.”

Spidey dug his heels in and stood straight even as he felt himself shaking inside, “Funny, sounds like someone I know.”

“What did you say?” Morbius growled in offence, his thin cracked lips pulled back into a feral snarl. If Peter wasn't so worked up he would've yielded immediately but instead he pointed an accusing finger at the vampire, poking right into his chest.

“And you know what, instead of moping around you should be doing something with yourself. That's how nearly every hero starts, Morbius, poking their noses into things they shouldn't and ending up in crap and coming out of it changed, for the BETTER!”  
Morbius gaped at the webhead, his face no longer vicious but flabbergasted

Morbius stopped, staring doubtfully at the young hero, before letting it all out like a puff of air. He sank further in fatigue having expended what little the prototype blood substitutes gave him. Spider-man looked on, a little guilty of having pushed the inflicted man a little.

“This is where she appears to frequent, plenty of customers there,” he said, handing over a piece of paper with an address written on it, “She may or may not be there.”

“...Thanks,” Spidey said reaching for it. Morbius briefly snatched it back out of reach.

“I warned you, now hope that it doesn't change you for the worst,” Morbius said, placing the note in Spider-man's hand, “Now go, I'm feeling quite parched.” And the webslinger was gone without a second warning.


End file.
